More music fans claim scalpings by Ticketmaster

Monday, February 09, 2009

BY PEGGY McGLONE

Star-Ledger Staff

Isa MacCutcheon of Freehold was at her computer Jan. 16 when
tickets to the March 21 Allman Brothers concerts at the
Beacon Theatre in New York went on sale. A regular
Ticketmaster customer, MacCutcheon followed the prompts,
rushing to get through to the confirmation. She scored two
tickets for $431.25.

Don Smith of Cranford wanted two tickets to Fleetwood
Mac's concert at the Izod Center on March 21 for
himself and his wife. He logged on to Ticketmaster hours
after the seats went on sale and paid $606.05 for two.

They say they thought they were making their purchase at
Ticketmaster but -- without realizing it -- they closed the
sales at TicketsNow, the resale site owned by the ticket
service giant. As a result, they paid much more than the
face value of the tickets.

They got scalped.

"I got ripped off," said MacCutcheon, who
immediately called TicketsNow customer service to cancel the
order and was rebuffed. "I've never had this
problem before."

Bruce Springsteen's fans were outraged last week
when Ticketmaster immediately linked them to its resale
site, where seats were selling for hundreds of dollars over
their original price. Ticketmaster apologized and promised
reforms.

But interviews with concertgoers and experts familiar
with the online ticket business suggest the practice of
redirecting ticket-buyers to a resale site goes far beyond
the Springsteen tour. They also describe a ticket
marketplace governed by few rules but geared to generate
sales at lightning speed.

Concertgoers report experiences similar to the Springsteen controversy when they bought tickets from Ticketmaster to a range of shows, from the Dead and AC/DC to 3 Doors Down and Britney Spears. Most say they had been suffering in silence until the uproar last week. Some say it never occurred to them that they might have been ripped off....